The first generation of Pokemon features 151 creatu𝔉res to capture and train. Nearly all of these Gen 1 Pokemon are considered among the best of all time, particularly the starters and legendaries from these original games.

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There are several types of Pokemon from the first generation that are also alarmingly overpowered, as Pokemon Red & B🍃lue featured some terrible balance issues an🔯d game-breaking bugs.

Updated February 1, 2025, by Andrew Scariati: The best Gen 1 Pokemon have something in common: if used correctly, they can break the game. While you might already be familiar with some of the strongest Gen 1 Pokemon, several unheralded choices exceed expectations. We've added an honorable mention you might not have ever seen to the best Gen 1 Pokemon.

Honorable Mention: MissingNo.

Battling MissingNo. in Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow.

When it comes to the best Gen 1 Pokemon that break the game, few fit the bill better than MissinꦚgNo., as this Pokemon can corrupt your save file dueꦚ to the game trying to display a Pokemon that doesn't exist.

The easiest way to encounter MissingNo. is by watching the demonstration on catching Pokemon from the Old Man in Viridian City, and immediately flying to Cinn🌜abar Island. Surf along the coast until you encounter MissingNo.

Performing the glitch to encounter MissingNo. will corrupt your Hall Of Fame and cause other bizarre side effects, including increasing the sixth itemไ in your bag to a quantity of 128. Examining the Pokemon also distorts the game's graphics, but can be fixed by looking through Pokedex entries. This glitched Pokemon perfectly fits the definition of game-breaking.

25 Vaporeon

Vaporeon leaps gracefully out of the water in a stadium.

Vaporeon is often seen as the most competitive member of the original Eeveelutions, with excellent defensive moves like Acid Armor and Double Team alongside the powerful TM Toxic to slowly drain your foes. In a standard playthrough, t⭕hough, Vaporeon is still one of the best Watꦬer-type Pokemon in the game thanks to an absurd Special and HP stat.

This l🧔ets it remain defensive against all sorts of Grass and Electric-typ🎶e moves that would normally defeat it in one hit, as well as giving its Water-type attacks a huge boost.

Thanks to HM Surf being so powerful, it can be extremely effective to evolve your Eevee into a Vaporeon and toss Surf onto it for 🤪an overpowered Gen 1 water cannon.

24 Charizard

Mega Charizard X flying towards the camera with its mouth open in the Pokemon anime.

Starters are meant to represent equal choices, but the first set of starters in the Po♋kemon series fun🍨ctioned more like difficulty options due to how they stack against certain Gym Leaders.

Charmander was the hardest to ಞtrain, being weak to the first two Gym Leader🐠s and only taking off in the late game.

Once it's finally evolved, Charizard is unstoppable against the later foes of the Kanto region. Its powerful combination of Fire and Flying-type moves is only available through legendaries like Moltres, giving it a huge edge over all sorts of Pokemon and🐼 having few bad matchups out💞side of Lorelei’s Water-types in the Elite 4.

23 ꩵ ⛎ Aerodactyl

Aerodactyl from the Pokemon anime, flying and looking focused in a stadium.

If you don’t want something as common as a basic Normal-type bird, you need not look further than the overpowered Ae🅠rodactyl for an excellent Flying and Rock-type force. This Pokemon is exhausting to acquire since you can’t find the fossil to restore it until late in the game.

Aerodactyl's biggest downside in the first games of the series is that it lacks any actual Rock-type moves, but that’s made up for thanks to its excellent Normal-type moves like Take Down and Hyper Beam. It even boasts some unusual TM moves like Fire Blast𒁃 and ꦅDragon Rage to mess with any opponents you might not be able to deal with.

22 Venusaur

One complete Pokemon evolutionary line of Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur.

If you want to flex on your friends, Venusaur has one of the best Gen 1𓄧 glitches to abuse. In the original games, Toxic and Leech Seed essentially ran off of the same damage counter, meaning you would restore health from their Poison status and increase the Toxic damage w✱hen either effect activates.

Venusaur is one of the few Gen 1 Pokemon to learn 🌱both of these moves and so long as your foe can’t wipe you out immediately, this combo can annihilate anyone, ꦫeven Lance’s Dragonite in the Elite 4.

If you just want a great Grass-type 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:tank for your sun team, then you won't be disappointed with🦄 this powerful starter Pokemon.

21 Muk

Three muk in water in the Pokemon anime

Muk is one of many Poison-type Pokemon in the game, and its mov🅘es are hardly anything special. However, the one exception to this is Minimize, one of the greatest Evasiveness boosters in the series that combos with Muk’s physical defense.

Since most of the ♐game is filled with physical Normal-type attackers, Muk can almost always just spam t🥂his move six times to become nearly impossible to hit. Afterward, all you have to do is let them faint via Toxic or Poison Gas or instead restore your health with the unexpected Mega Drain in your arsenal.

20 Golem

Golem holds its arms out in the Pokemon Anime

Golem resists Normal and Electric attacks, makinꦉg it a valuable tank for early competitive battlers. Electric and Normal moves were some of the most common for a long time, and even with its weakness to Grass and Water-type moves, its defenses are good enough to counter plenty of overpowered Gen 1 Pokemon.

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On the attacking side, Golem can learn Explosion, which is such a useful move for a tank that’s so hard to defeat. Simply hit with what ♚you can, and if you think you’re about to faint, Ex𝕴plosion will take out your opponent right with you. Golem’s great physical Attack stat ensures it can defeat nearly any other powerful Gen 1 Pokemon.

19 Exeggutor

Exeggutor smiles and runs foward in Pokemon.

There was a tim🌃e when Exeggutor was at the top of the food chain. It has a great type combi𒁏nation of Psychic and Grass-type, and getting access to powerful attacks like Psychic, Mega Drain, and Sleep Powder allowed it to prepare for all kinds of opponents.

Filling multiple roles in a team is incredibly rare among most Pokemon, as they can often be intended as single-purpose attackers with only a few great moves and strategies. Exeggutor has just the right mix of status moves, defense, and offense to be good wherever you ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚneed it to be among yourꦐ team.

18 Gyarados

Blue Gyarados Viridian City Gym Pokemon Anime.

At first glance, Gyarados is a solid choice for any team due to good stats and sweeping moves like Surf and Blizzard. It's nothing spectacular but is good enough for most tasks and a fun pꦛroject if you don’t mind grinding your Magikarp against some wild Pokꦓemon for a while.

Once you realize 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gyarados can learn Thunderbolt via TM, everything changes. Gyarados can function as a counter for every Water-type, including others o🦩f the same species, while featuring absurd Normal-type moves that take advantage of its excellent physical Attack stat.

17 Articuno

Articuno uses Ice Beam while it flies through the sky in the Pokemon 2000 movie.

When a Pokemon lacks a ܫdiverse 🐈set of moves, it essentially needs to be perfect at what it aims to do. Articuno is a great example of this, as it’s one of the strongest and fastest Ice types in the game and one of the greatest users of Blizzard.

It might suffer from a wide set of weaknesses, but Articuno is difficult to deal with in Pokemon Red & Blue, and even more powerful in Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen t🦩hanks to some polished mechanics and a better ran💫ge of attacks. Even without spamming Blizzard, you can still pull off some great strategies with Mind Reader to land an inaccurate Sheer Cold for a comical one-hit defeat.

16 Tauros

The Pokemon Tauros in a clearing in Pokemon.

Tauros is a staple of the Gen 1 Safari Zone. It's powerfuಞl, fast, and can take༒ advantage of some of the best Normal-type moves like Hyper Beam and Take Down.

It’s slightly behind in more🀅 modern games, since Normal-typ𓆉e moves are much weaker in metagames with Ghost and Steel-types, but Kanto adventurers will surely find them useful against nearly every opponent in the game.

Ash knew exactly what he was doing when he caught 30 Tauros i🃏n the Pokemon anime, even if the ave🐎rage trainer only really needs one. It’s hardly anything complicated, but if you want just a solid physical beater, it’s absolutely worth spending some time adventuring the tall grass until you find one.